By Adrian Taylor
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may or may not be on to something when she said, in response to a question about the racial realties associated with the post-Hurricane Katrina tragedy, that "these are emotional times."
Rice may be on to something if her statement can be interpreted as being an extension of the problematic racial perceptions and life-worlds of most blacks in America, across all socio-economic strata. Conversely, Rice is off the mark if she's implying that blacks are screaming "race" because "our" emotions have the best of us, a position that presuppose that race is a non-factor in the black world... and America.
In response to the human tragedy that we see in the post-Katrina relief effort, much is being debated all across America; and in many black circles, "Institutional Racism" and the problems with many in the media calling black folks "refugees" are conjuring historically suppressed racial antagonisms.
These two issues need to be picked up.
Institutional racism is real. Among many associated variables, black life is undervalued. As such, white folks, and most of us, unconsciously de-prioritize black tragedy (and the poor, black or white, are not atop the national priority ladder either.
We don't vote and gather attention only when relative tragedy hits, which will probably subside in a few weeks. For example, imagine all the young black women and children who go missing every year, let alone everyday, that go unpublished compared to the coverage that dominates the media when a white bride goes missing, a white tourist in Aruba can't be found or a child is abducted in California.
What about all the black males who "senselessly" died in America last night? Where is the consistent black outrage, the media attention, both black and white and the Congressional commissions? But again, our tragedy seems to be historically over-determined, regularized, apparently not worth critical investigation. It seems that New Orleans is the worst and "most" recent event. The situation in Darfur, Sudan has been rather quiet lately.
Concerning this refugee's piece, the folks in New Orleans are refugees according to the dictionary. Look it up... I did! It's about displacement, whether inside or outside of one's country. And yes, this conjures images of the "Third-World," underdevelopment and the colored "other."
Let's be clear, we in the U.S. are not exempt from terrorism, refugee-ship, and death. All of the above is immanent; let's confront these things.
Ironies abound, which paradoxically might make things not look so dark. Just like 9-11 is making us take "international" poverty (development), security and human rights, for all, around the world, more seriously. Although the Bush Administration and John Bolton are trying to reverse these trends at the coming UN 60th Anniversary September Summit black folks, and those of conscience, may mobilize. They could mobilize to hold our elected officials responsible and voting those that aren't serving our interests out of power. Maybe we can develop a better education, health, and poverty alleviation strategy/imperative for all in the nation, if not the world?
It remains to be seen what opportunities will be capitalized upon, hidden in this dreadful (somewhat preventable... recall, that our feeble sciences can't "predict" or control nature, no matter how hard we try) tragedy. Is it in our hands?
